Reasonable cause under section 273B can protect against penalty for accepting a cash advance towards transfer of immovable property, even where the amount is a specified sum covered by section 269SS. Transaction genuineness and disclosure alone do not establish reasonable cause, but may support the bona fides of the explanation. Immediate personal funding needs, the purchaser's circumstances, prompt bank deposit of the cash, receipt of the balance through banking channels, and disclosure of the full sale consideration cumulatively supported reasonable cause. Penalty under section 271D was deleted.

Genuineness of a political contribution, rather than banking-channel payment or a donation receipt, determines eligibility for deduction under section 80GGC. Admissions by political-party office bearers, search material, banking patterns and statutory non-compliance may establish an accommodation-entry arrangement; in that setting, receipts and bank statements may not rebut the evidence. The transaction must be assessed on human probabilities, surrounding circumstances and preponderance of probabilities. On these facts, the claimed deduction was disallowed. A challenge to initiation of penalty proceedings under section 270A was treated as premature.

Non-genuine metal purchases with undisputed corresponding sales warrant an addition only for the profit element embedded in those purchases, rather than their full value. ITAT treated the business and dispute as materially similar to the immediately preceding year and, as Revenue showed no material factual difference, followed the prior-year estimation. The addition was reduced from 12.5% to 5% of the disputed purchases. Reopening grounds remained open, and consequential interest was to be recomputed.

Residual Profit Split Method, once accepted and computed for an integrated IT-enabled and data analytics services transaction, cannot be supplemented by a further entity-level margin comparison using another transfer-pricing method. A different prescribed method may be used only after RPSM is rejected for cogent reasons; the entity-level adjustment was therefore deleted. Corporate guarantee pricing cannot mechanically adopt commercial bank-guarantee rates. The interest-saving approach requires transaction-specific analysis of the associated enterprise's credit profile, borrowing terms, currency, tenure, security and guarantee coverage; the guarantee commission was remanded for fresh determination. Current-year business-loss set-off requires verification against return, computation and assessment records.

Capital-gains computation for a constructed flat sold with an undivided land share must consider credible evidence of both land and construction cost. A registered conveyance is not necessarily conclusive where contemporaneous agreements and housing-finance disbursement, repayment and closure records substantiate construction expenditure. The capital-gains addition was deleted, with recomputation required after allowing the substantiated construction cost and applicable indexation. Reassessment based on property-sale information and non-filing of a return was sustained after notice and prescribed procedure. The unexplained-payment issue involving non-residents remained for determination because the available record lacked transaction details and supporting evidence.

Form No. 26AS is relevant evidence of receipts against the deductee's PAN but is not conclusive of income accrual after transfer of the underlying business. Where contemporaneous agreements, reconciliations, non-claim of TDS credit and successor-entity confirmation support the transfer, verification should cover the successor's accounting, assessment of receipts, invoices and TDS credit to prevent duplicate taxation. Advertising expenditure incurred through a holding company may qualify as business expenditure where invoices and published advertisements establish actual services and a direct business nexus. Related-party status, abbreviated invoice particulars, differing advertising rates, or absence of immediate revenue growth do not alone justify full disallowance without identifying an excessive component.

Reassessment departing from an importer's self-assessment requires a speaking order where written acceptance is absent. Duty paid under protest to obtain clearance does not establish acceptance, and procedural fairness requires an opportunity to support the declared classification and value. For ice-making machinery, consistent departmental classification of identical goods as food or drink preparation machinery, together with unchallenged appellate treatment, supports resolving departmental uncertainty in the importer's favour. Declared transaction value cannot be enhanced without disclosing the valuation method and producing cogent evidence to justify rejection of that value; unsupported enhancement lacks a legal and factual basis.

Penalties for abetment under Section 112(a)(i) and for knowingly or intentionally using false import documents under Section 114AA require evidence that an intermediary knew of, participated in, or benefited from the import. Mere introduction of one person to another does not establish participation in an act rendering imported goods liable to confiscation, abetment, or knowing use of false documentation. As the Revenue did not establish the intermediary's knowledge or involvement, deletion of both penalties was sustained and the Revenue appeal failed.

Upon commencement of CIRP, management vests in the Interim Resolution Professional, rendering an appeal filed in the corporate debtor's name by a suspended director incompetent. A later amendment to prosecute the appeal personally cannot relate back to cure that lack of authority or bypass the statutory appellate limitation; the appeal was therefore not maintainable. For an operational creditor's insolvency application, a pre-existing dispute must be real and plausible rather than feeble, spurious, or illusory, without requiring a mini-trial at admission. Quality and contractual-compliance objections concerning the HDPE pond liner did not meet that threshold, so debt and default supported CIRP admission.

Money-laundering bail requires a foundational nexus between property and criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence: later dealings with assets do not establish laundering unless the assets are first shown to be proceeds of crime. Refinancing or repayment arrangements involving borrowings during the alleged offence period may require trial scrutiny but may not, without sufficient material, establish that assets acquired earlier derive from that activity. The statutory twin conditions require reasonable grounds of non-guilt and a finding that further offending is unlikely. Article 21 limits prolonged pre-trial detention where an enlarged, document-heavy prosecution and continuing investigation make timely trial completion unrealistic; risks to witnesses, evidence, and assets may be managed through bail conditions.

Money laundering is an independent offence covering processes or activities connected with proceeds of crime derived from a scheduled offence. A PMLA investigation may therefore extend beyond amounts quantified in individual predicate chargesheets, and a person need not be charge-sheeted in the predicate offence if involvement with proceeds of crime is established. The statutory twin conditions for bail apply to anticipatory bail; courts must have reasonable grounds to believe the person is not guilty and unlikely to reoffend. A summoned person must attend personally, and fresh summons may issue on new facts. Non-cooperation, including failure to attend repeated summons, may independently preclude anticipatory bail.

Attachment under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act did not prevent a co-operative housing society from redeveloping its building where the attached flat's replacement remained subject to attachment. The attachment had to be disclosed in redevelopment documents, and all accruals relating to the attached flat had to be deposited exclusively in the designated Enforcement Directorate account. The replacement flat was entitled to the same redevelopment benefits as other members. A bank guarantee was not required because it would impose financial pressure before redevelopment terms were finalised. Redevelopment was permitted subject to these safeguards.

Pronouncement of judgment in a money-laundering prosecution should await judgment in the connected scheduled-offence proceeding, even though the money-laundering trial may continue independently. The scheduled offence forms the foundation of the money-laundering prosecution, and its outcome directly affects that prosecution; deciding the latter first may create a legally inconsistent result. The stated approach permits the Special Court to continue the money-laundering trial while deferring its judgment until the scheduled-offence court delivers judgment.

Intermediary services supplied by overseas Local Area Representatives in film-production arrangements fall outside India's taxable territory where the producer retains exclusive creative, budgetary and business control. Representatives that arrange facilities, personnel and third-party shooting services for a fixed facilitation fee, without changing the nature or value of underlying services, act as intermediaries rather than film producers providing services on their own account. The specific place-of-provision rule for intermediary services applies, with Paris as the place of provision. Foreign tax incentives received through a representative do not establish independent film-production services. Consequently, reverse-charge service tax, related demand and penalties do not apply.

Preferential customs duty concessions for imports from New Zealand apply at the scheduled basic customs duty, Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess, and, where specified, Health Cess rates, effective 20 October 2026. Eligibility requires proof that goods are of New Zealand origin under applicable trade-agreement origin rules. Specified products receive rates subject to CIF-value parameters and product-specific conditions. Manuka honey and albumins may receive in-quota treatment only within annual tariff rate quotas. Tariff rate quota imports require DGFT allotment, electronic authorisation, and electronic debit in ICES; Manuka honey also requires certification from New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries.

Special Economic Zones Rules now deem a developer's written provisional space offer for a fund management entity and that entity's lease deed to be the fund's corresponding documents in an International Financial Service Centre (IFSC). For an IFSC Unit, final regulatory recognition, registration, licence, or authorisation fixes the commencement date for service activity, which remains unchanged if approval later lapses. Letter of Approval renewals must follow recommendations on employment, violations of applicable statutes, and statutory-payment defaults. Aircraft or ship leasing Units allowed not to maintain separate offices may share office space or manpower without separate space or lease documents, subject to prescribed conditions. Funds established in an IFSC are excluded from rule 22(3). The amendments take effect on 15 October 2026.

Paragraph 4(2) of the Employees' Pension Scheme, 2026 substitutes the previously centrally specified sum with a pensionable wage ceiling of Rs. 15,000 per month. The first proviso to paragraph 4(2) is also amended by deleting the words "and the Central Government". These amendments take effect from 17 September 2026.

Customs tariff values are substituted for specified edible oils, brass scrap, gold, silver and areca nuts with effect from 16 October 2026. The prescribed values cover crude and refined palm oil and palmolein, crude soya bean oil, and brass scrap on a per-metric-tonne basis. Separate values apply to eligible gold and silver imports, including specified gold bars, coins, findings, silver, medallions and semi-manufactured silver forms, subject to the stated exclusions. Areca nuts receive a revised tariff value per metric tonne. These substitutions replace Tables 1, 2 and 3 under the existing customs tariff-value framework.

Listed entities whose non-convertible debt securities are listed on or after 14 October 2026 must list on stock exchanges all non-convertible debt securities issued after that listing. Regulation 62A(1) is replaced to impose this continuing listing requirement, while sub-regulations (2) and (3) are omitted. The amendment took effect upon publication in the Official Gazette on 14 October 2026.

REIT regulations permit the issuance of depository receipts on REIT units, subject to regulatory compliance and the manner specified by the Board. The definition of common infrastructure no longer contains wording limiting it to composite real estate projects, industrial parks and SEZs, and a clause in the investment conditions is omitted. Unitholder approvals for specified transactions and changes now require at least 75% of total votes cast in favour, excluding votes cast by related parties, rather than approval by unitholders by value. On a sponsor's exit from a multi-sponsor REIT, specified sponsors or sponsor-group entities must offer dissenting unitholders an exit option. The amendments took effect upon Gazette publication.